Lights
by derpette-Waffle
Summary: AU - Dan and friends break into a house and find a mutilated young man chained in the basement. His friends bolt, but Dan can't bring himself to leave without calling the police. To avoid a trespassing charge, Dan stays with him at the hospital for comfort. - (warnings for abuse and abduction)
1. Chapter 1

p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"The rickety old house on the corner of Eastman and Dale had been falling apart long before it was officially declared abandoned by our neighborhood squad. Cam and I stood leaning against the twisted wire fence and let it squeak as we swayed against it in the wind. The air climbed and fell through the creaking panel home a couple of yards in front of us, letting out an awful moaning sound that gave both of us the chills./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;""How much longer?" I asked uneasily. "They should be here by now."/p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;""They're coming." Cam checked her phone for the time, and to see if Hunter had answered her texts. She furrowed her eyebrows and stuffed it back in her pocket. "If no one gets here in ten minutes, we'll go in ourselves."/p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"I swallowed hard –even with Cam there, the two of us couldn't keep each other safe from anything that lurked in the darkness. If only we'd agreed to this during the daytime, I might have felt a bit more adventurous, but the sun had set three hours ago and we were both due home for dinner. Dad would be pissed if he found out where we actually were. "I told you that Hunter kid is bad news and you went behind my back to get into trouble with him!" But Cam assured me on our way over that the only way Dad would find out anything was if we got caught snooping, and were brought home in a police car. That didn't help./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"Hunter arrived nine minutes later with a cocky-ass grin on his face, like we were subjected to him and would've gone on waiting. But my sister was having none of his shit, and went off. "Fucking douche canoe, what took you so long?"/p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"I stood still against the fence as they bickered, first very genuinely peeved off at one another but eventually softening into their fond banter. I almost gagged at how they loved to hate each other, but didn't let myself move, afraid the creaking fence would draw attention to me./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"Allen and Derek, who I didn't know as well as Cam's part-time lover, arrived a few steps behind the self-appointed leader of our squad. Well, their squad; I mostly was dragged along by my twin or tagged along in sheer boredom. I was wishing I would've put more effort into something I could do that night, other than this./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;""We going in?" Cam was growing impatient, bouncing on her heels. She gave Hunter a look that said 'if you try to put this off longer I'll elect myself new leader and drag us all inside,' and Hunter couldn't make her wait another moment. We hopped the fence and trekked through the dark up to the door. Allen was our specialty lock pick./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"The smell inside was revolting, a stale combination of alcohol and cigar smoke. I coughed and Derek told me to shut up before we got caught. I managed to catch the next expulsion in my throat. The place wasn't left to ruin long enough for anything to have gathered cobwebs or even much dust, and everything was intact so we must've been the first to break in. My stomach turned as I had to remember what we were doing, and pushed it out of my mind with more difficulty than before./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"Cam and Hunter took turns at the head of the pack, Derek and Allen a couple of feet behind –I brought up the rear. Hunter told me that if I was gonna drag my feet so much, I could at least make myself useful and keep an eye out for trouble./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"So while the others explored, I watched everything. I caught Derek and Allen looking through empty silverware drawers in the kitchen. They didn't take anything. Hunter was examining a mirror above the mantelpiece, and there various knick knacks that sat in front of it, but he left them right where they were when he returned to Cam. Cam was looking through some drawers across the living room, as if looking for something. I was worried she might be the one to stuff something valuable into her pocket, so I looked the other way./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;""Hey!" Hunter called out in a harsh whisper to gather us round. "Seems there's nothing else on this floor. Cam and I are gonna check upstairs, you three go downstairs."/p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"There was a door next to the kitchen that must've led to the basement. I would've preferred to go up to the second floor and not down into the blackness that awaited us here, but the two of them were already upstairs./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"Derek turned the knob but struggled. "It's locked. Allen, help me out."/p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"Allen pushed his glasses up on his nose and knelt down to work his magic. Derek stared at me for a moment until I looked away. A moment later, the knob turned, and Allen swung it open only to be met with the most blood-curdling sound I'd ever heard. It sounded like something between a scream and a sob, and I couldn't make out something like "Please!" from a strangled voice down in the basement./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"I froze in place; all of us did. The place wasn't abandoned, there was somebody down there! Once the immediate shock wore off, Allen and Derek bolted, sprinting and tripping across the living room and out into the night./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"Hunter and Cam must've heard either the same thing we did, or just the stomping of four feet racing out of the house. "What the fuck!" Hunter shouted, voice cracking when he tried to keep it soft enough so neighbors wouldn't call the cops. "What was that?"/p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"My hand flew up and a shaky finger pointed downstairs./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;""We better check it out." Cam was first to be unafraid by the sudden presence, and was stepping closer, until Hunter lifted a hand to hold her back./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;""Let me." Even in the darkness I could see the softness in his eyes when he looked at her like most guys wouldn't. She couldn't find words to argue./p  
p style="margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; color: #800080; font-family: cambria; font-size: 10px; text-align: justify;"Hunter headed down, and a moment later there was more screaming and crying from that same person from earlier, and suddenly Hunter was back upstairs and out of breath, eyes wide. "You guys gotta see this."/p 


	2. Chapter 2

The guy down in the basement didn't look much older than the three of us, which was what probably brought me closer to vomiting than had he been an actual adult. The guy was only half conscious now –probably exhausted from the screaming and crying and losing a lot of blood. That's what it looked like.

There were lights all around and Hunter had turned them on, which Hunter reported had scared the kid into silence. If they were bothering him so much, I kinda wanted to go turn them off, but I was still stunned and scared.

It was like something out of a horror movie –maybe not the _Saw _sequels but probably the original. He was chained to a metal table under a large fluorescent lamp, shackles around both wrists. He was only wearing a pair of shorts and his legs stopped above the knees (I did throw up in the corner when I saw that. Hunter told me to get a grip.) The kid was only wearing a pair of shorts, and the bits of skin that could be seen between splats of blood was incredibly pale and stretched too thin and tight over his bones. His hair was matted around his head, and hung in his frightened eyes when he looked at us.

"Don't… hurt… please."

I turned to Cam and then to Hunter, unsure of what to do. I knew what we had to do, of course, logically: we call the police and get the poor guy out of there. But in my panic I didn't think of that, so I turned to them for an answer. Cam seemed more collected than I was, though her eyes were equally wide in shock and fear; the horror of the situation seemed to wear off on Hunter, who turned to the both of us and offered our next move.

"We gotta get out of here."

"What? We can't just leave him here!" I knew Hunter wasn't the best guy in the world, but I never thought he'd abandon someone obviously in pain and so helpless. "We have to call for an ambulance!"

"Shut up, Dan. If we call for help the police will come. We're not supposed to be here. Do you really wanna get in that kind of trouble?"

And I didn't, but at the same time, I didn't think I could live with leaving this poor guy to continue suffering, maybe even die. I pulled my phone out, fingers shaking and palm sweaty, ready to dial. But Hunter reached over and swatted it out of my hand, and it fell to the concrete floor, cracking the screen. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" I yelped.

"You're not gonna get us arrested for this. I'm getting the fuck out of here." And he stormed back up the stairs. Only Cam and I were left in the basement with the since unconscious prisoner.

I turned to my sister in desperation. Surely she'd know what we really needed to do. Cam bit her lip and looked like she was debating what was the best option, as if it were really a question. "Dan… if Dad knows I was out with Hunter—"

"You've gotta be kidding me," I groaned in exasperation. "You've gotta be fucking kidding. You would really rather stay out of trouble than get this poor kid the help he needs? This might be his only chance."

She shook her head and pulled her phone out of her pocket, and pushed it into my hand. "Wait two minutes. That'll give the two of us enough time to get out of here." And she ran upstairs.

The next hundred twenty seconds were maybe the longest of my life, even longer than my French oral exam last week. I paced back and forth in the filthy basement room, avoiding looking at the kid as much as possible, as I counted down from one twenty, then a hundred, a the final minute. I convinced myself that they'd had enough time to escape but only waited until I got down to forty before I started dialing.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"Hi. Um, I'm in this house at 152 Eastman Boulevard and there's someone chained up in the basement. He- There's blood everywhere but some of it looks old. And it- it looks like someone cut his legs off, but there's nobody else here. I don't know how long he's been kept down here but it looks like a while…"

She told me that police and paramedics were being dispatched, and asked if I wanted to stay on the line, but I didn't. "Alright. Is he conscious?"

I looked over and saw that his eyes were open again. Hesitantly stepping closer, I saw that they were glazed over but he seemed alert enough. "Yeah, he's awake, kinda."

"Try to keep him calm. Are there any open wounds bleeding?"

"No, it doesn't look like it." I checked him over again to make sure. It made me feel sick again to see how much pain he had to be in, but I managed to choke out a confirmation. "No, no bleeding I can see."

She must've heard how forced my voice was. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay on the line?"

"No, it's fine, thanks."

"Emergency responders should arrive in about five minutes." And we hung up.

I bit my lip and ran my hand through my hair before getting closer to the person's face. His eyes were starting to fall shut again, so I did as I was asked and spoke to him to keep him awake. "Hey. Hey, help is on its way. I don't know how long you've been here. I don't know what you've been through—" My imagination could run wild on that, just from what I was seeing here. "But it's just gonna be another couple of minutes. You're gonna be alright."

For a moment, he didn't seem to respond. Then he was suddenly sobbing, tears leaking from his eyes. He was slipping out again, but his lips moved, blood in his mouth leaving him difficult to understand when he spoke, but I made it out. "Thank you…"


	3. Chapter 3

The kid didn't wake up again in the time it took for sirens to be heard outside the house. My heart leapt into my throat –how would I get away with trespassing when being caught in the act? For a moment I thought maybe Cam and even Hunter were right in leaving (though at least I would've called and then bolted. I wasn't gonna leave the poor guy to die down here.) But that thought quickly dissipated when something told me I'd done the right thing, and that even if I got in trouble with my dad or even with the police for this, I could sleep okay tonight.

While the two of us were still alone in the awful room, I took a second to just look him over one more time. By now the shock of his physical state had kinda worn off, but I was still feeling a bit sick wondering how he'd gotten himself down here in the first place. I didn't live very near here; I didn't know the guy who lived here before the house was abandoned. I'd probably seen him once or twice in such a small town, maybe shopping at the mall on Christmas Eve, but I wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a crowd. I'd never thought about any psychopaths living in my little town, but this probably proved it to be true. At least he was gone, and good riddance.

I stepped quietly along the length of the metal table the boy was shackled to. He was indeed missing his knees and below, but at the same time it wasn't bloody, and looked to be stitched well enough. He was still alive and those scars didn't look new, so it must've been taken care of at the time –well, as taken care of as I could give the bastard credit for.

The chrome surface was covered in something grimy, darker than the dried blood, and I could only imagine all the bacteria down here. Looking a bit closer, some of the kid's more open wounds did look infected, but I could only hope the doctors at the hospital would be able to take care of that before the damage was too awful.

Soon enough I did hear the front door open upstairs, and the thudding of many footsteps that followed. I stepped back from the scene, worried I'd be in the way when they came down, and wanting to be as helpful as possible given the circumstances.

A stout female officer was the first one downstairs, and she saw me through the shadows immediately. I stared down at the dirty ground and tried not to draw too much attention to myself; she relayed orders to others upstairs who were yet to see the scene for themselves. Then she turned to me. "Do you know what happened here?" The look in her eyes told me there was a right and wrong answer to this question, and my voice shook when I gave one.

"No, I don't." I had to think up an excuse, but I was rather quick on my feet for a stressful situation. "I was just wandering around the neighborhood when I heard something, and came to investigate." It was probably the more obvious lie, but it was what I came up with on such short notice.

She nodded her head a little, and shouted some more up to her colleagues. After someone called back, she moved over to the boy on the table. I didn't notice I'd taken a cautious step closer as well, until I'd already done so. She gave me a strange look but ignored me right after. "Sir?" She addressed him like she would some grown man on the street, but with a kinder voice. "Help is here. We're gonna get you to a hospital. You're safe now."

I thought about how I'd told him much the same thing, and almost smiled to myself knowing I might've done a good job in handling it.

But while I got a choked expression of gratitude, the officer got no response at all. The boy's eyes were glazed over and he seemed almost unresponsive, but his head lolled a bit when she spoke again.

"Can you tell me your name?"

But by the look on his face, you'd think he didn't remember. At a loss for what else could get a reaction from him, I looked frantically around the room for anything that might remind him of his name. A young man came down then, and the officer asked him to take a DNA sample. "Maybe he's in the system."

I was startled by that, like he might've been in prison at some point like most DNA "in the system" on the crime shows that would come on at two in the morning. It actually took a moment of frozen confusion to realize she might've meant he was a missing persons case.

But that realization, and the stack of papers in the corner, gave me an idea of what to look for. Without thinking of how either of the two responders would've reacted, and getting in the way of the descending gurney for a moment, I hurried around the room to the papers and searched through them carefully but quickly. It took a minute, but I eventually found what I was looking for, and brought it over while the paramedics started their work.

"Phil? Is that your name?" I asked gently, not wanting to frighten the poor guy. The officer just stared at me, but I showed her the paper, and she asked him the same question. His head moved again, but this time it seemed a bit more a deliberate nod than just falling to the side had been.

The officer looked at me and gave a nod of her own, and I felt something well up inside me. "Good work, kid," she sort of praised. I thanked her and went to fold up the paper to shove into my pocket for later, but she told me to hand that in as evidence. I didn't argue.


End file.
